Old. Conservative. Christian. In love with my wife, our boys, Texas, America, Western Civilization, and Jesus. Sorry about the decline of newspapers.

October 17, 2016

Now to NOVEMBER 8 / Closed: Unca Darrell will vote for . . .

. . . one of the worst human beings and presidential candidates in American history, Donald John Trump. Here's why:

The short answer is Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton. She's worse.

Ms. Clinton lacks the character and competence to serve as president, and her policies would, if put into force, do more harm than good. The purpose of this post was to document her flaws of character, competence, and ideology.

I have not accomplished this, however, and see no prospect that I will. So I am shutting down this project, erasing most of the existing text, and substituting a few general comments and observations, most borrowed from folks who think and write better than I.

Thank you for attending to this work in progress that, alas, never progressed.

More important than stopping her, however, is to fight back against the swarm of cultural, economic, political, and civilizational locusts she brings with her. They're called progressives. And they are already well advanced on their project of fundamentally transforming our sweet republic.

Mrs. Clinton may already have won the election. Her campaign, the media (a branch of her campaign, for the most part), and the loutish Mr. Trump have cooperated (he, unintentionally) to swing the election to her.

It may also be too late in a more profound sense. Even if she can be defeated, the progressive project is so well advanced, its advocates so deeply entrenched in government, academia, and the media, that a Trump victory might neither stop nor reverse the decline. It's not even clear that he would even try to reverse the decline, if he could, though "Make American Great Again" is a rough approximation of what is needed.

How can a well-educated, reasonably sane man such as I vote for Mr. Trump?

Look again at the self-description at the top of this blog: "Old. Conservative. Christian. In love with my wife, our boys, Texas, America, Western Civilization, and Jesus. Sorry about the decline of newspapers."

The progressive project is an avowed enemy of virtually every element of my self-description and the ideas and values they reflect.

Texas? The deepest desire of progressives at, say, The Houston Chronicle editorial board is to tear down the Texas that exists and replace it with a state that more nearly resembles the utopias known as California, New York, and France.

The United States? President Barack Hussein Obama promised fundamental transformation, and has largely succeeded. The words fundamental transformation signal the deep and dark premise of progressivism, that the American project itself is a failed enterprise in need of tearing down and starting anew. The truth is that America is the finest country ever to exist on God's green earth. If you know a better one, move there. Seriously.

America is a human enterprise, of course, and like all human enterprises, it is imperfect, in need of improvement. That's what our politics should be about, improving the place. Progressives, however, dream of a complete teardown and rebuild, with them as the new Founding Parents. The gamble is that they can do a better job than Messrs. Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and the rest, ludicrous.

Western Civilization? Don't get me started.

Christianity? Progressives hate Christians. Christianity is a competing religion, and no religion can be allowed to compete with faith in abortion, global warming, government programs, and all the rest. The modern Democrat Party is the party of agnostics, atheists, and a variety of pagans. If you don't think the left is out to break Christianity to the bridle of progressivism, you have not been paying attention.